Posted by Cy Byrd on Thursday, 2 December 2010, at 2:50 a.m., in response to Re: original design drawings, posted by Al Frasca on Thursday, 2 December 2010, at 1:18 a.m.

Well Al's drinking swamp water again..... Just kidding Al.

All parts had drawings at one time to show how the parts were to be made. Each part consisted of a series of measurements that had a tolerance. Most parts had + or - .005 of an inch. Except for the tumbler which must have been held to much tighter tolerances of maybe + or - .0005 of an inch. After ther Industrial Revolution all parts had drawings just for interchangability of parts between rifles, etc.

The go no go gauges were for checking the parts to see if they were made to the specifications on the individual drawings. All the parts had drawings at one time. At Harper's Ferry there is a complete set of gauges for the 1841 Mississippi rifle that's in beautiful shape.

As soon as Springfield had no reason to have service the trapdoor parts, The drawings would have been obsoleted and then destroyed a few years later. This would have been the case for all products or parts made by Springfield or sub-contractors. I don't know if Springfield had sub-contractors of parts or not, but Al's extensive studies my have a clue on this.